Toyonaka - School Blog | 28 October 2022

We have had an extremely exciting time here at Toyonaka Campus. With the conclusion of our annual sports day event things have been terribly busy at school, with teachers and children alike doing their utmost to prepare for the event.

The last few weeks has seen a lot of preparation. From the construction of various props for the sports day, to the practising of dances for the event as well as full on dress rehearsals. We were all excited to show our work to our families and friends.

This year we held our sports day at the “Tachi Ine” sports centre. We elected to separate the sports day into two groupings, one consisting of Early Nursery and Preschool classes, and the other group consisting of Nursery and Junior Kindy classes.

Moms, Dads, Grandparents, and siblings were all sat on the flanks of the centre stage while the classes paraded their class banners for all to see. It was a proud moment for onlookers as they got to watch how grown up our children had become in a few short months.

Several preschool children recited a pledge to open the first half of the ceremony. We lit our “torch” and swore to do our best.

For Early Nursery and preschool classes our opening ceremony consisted of two dances, one performed by Early Nursery to the song of “Hey Mickey,” by Toni Basil. While Preschool class performed a pom-pom dance to the song “Waka Waka” by Shakira. Everyone looked super cool as they did their dances.

Following our dances, we all got to show off our physical prowess in a gymnastic circuit made by our PE teacher, Ms Kana. This course challenged the children’s ability to balance, jump and use their upper body strength to complete a variety of tasks.

Once preschool had completed their circuits it was time for the Early Nursery Class to do their class game, which consisted of a time challenge where children had to help their parents feed a carboard dinosaur! It was a very energetic game with eh winning team being decided from the group that had fed their dinosaurs the most food balls.

Preschool was up next with an egg relay circuit. Children had to carry a small ball on a spoon across three obstacles. Jumping on a trampoline, ducking under a horizontal bar, and climbing over a vault. The final challenge was to race back to the start while pushing a ball with their parents. The winning team was the “girls” team, decided by their completion of the circuit in the fastest time.

The parents and students from each of the winning teams in preschool and nursery took part in a “tug of war” competition. Preschool team was the final victor.

We closed the first event by awarding medals to all participants and taking group photos together.

In our next session the Nursery and Junior Kindy classes both entered the event hall. Each class proudly displaying their banners. Like before a few of the older children were selected to give the sports day pledge, to “be humble in victory, gracious in defeat, do our best and have fun!” Unlike our previous session both classes participated in the “waka waka” dance which was a remarkable sight as both classes were quite large!

Once our circuits with Ms. Kana were completed the Nursery class had a three-way challenge race. Children and parents would jump off a trampoline and kick a ball into a goal. Finally, they would toss hoops onto a carboard target. The winning team had the most hoops on the target and was to challenge the junior Kindy team in a tug of war later.

As for Junior Kindy class, girls and boys were once more pitted against each other. This time they were further demonstrating skills learned in PE class. They skipped a rope before racing to a large dress which both parent and children had to wear and run in. once they had reached a cone, they would toss a ring before proceeding to hit a ball into a target with a stick. And finally hopping challenge would complete the circuit.

The tug of war was a close-run competition, but the Junior Kindy class won by a narrow margin.

As before, we awarded medal to all those who participated in our closing ceremony.

This year was certainly quite different from previous years. Not only was our system much different in that we separated the school into two groups, but we also used a new location.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this incredibly special occasion. And thank you to our hosts and organisers who worked tirelessly to accommodate us. Finally thank you to our teachers, and students who practised extremely hard to make this day a success.

Everyone who participated had a wonderful time. We are really looking forward to next year’s event.

See you then!